JOHN M. GRIFFITH, a well known citizen and prosperous dairyman of Mt. Pleasant township, is a grandson of John Griffith. His great-grandfather, John Griffith was born in Wales and married Letitia Blackburn. They settled in Mt. Pleasant township, and some of the family located in Maryland in 1765. Their son, John Griffith, (grandfather of subject), came to Mt. Pleasant township, and settled on the old Griffith homestead, where he died. Isaac Griffith, father of our subject, was born in 1800, on the home farm in Mt. Pleasant township, on the headwaters of Raccoon creek, where he grew to manhood. He married Elizabeth Esler, a native of Mt. Pleasant township, who bore him the following children: Robert (living in Cass county, Mo.), John M. (our subject), James M. (assassinated in Arizona), Isaac M. (deceased), Jane (Mrs. T. M. Berryhill, of Mt. Pleasant township), Lizzie (unmarried, living at Hickory, this county), Letitia (wife of T. M. Liggett, of Independence township) and Hattie Ann (wife of John Liggett, also of Independence township). Mr. Griffith followed farming, and in politics was first a Whig, then a Know-nothing, and finally a Republican. In religious belief he and his wife were members of the Presbyterian Church at Mt. Prospect. He died in 1867, and his wife in 1857. John M. Griffith was born March 17, 1842, in Mt. Pleasant township, this county, and was educated in the schools of Hickory, attending also six weeks at the normal school; he afterward taught school several terms in Washington county. On October 22, 1863, he was united in marriage with Mary Lyle Smith, a native of Smith township, and a daughter of Ebenezer and Margaret (Lyle) Smith, natives of Cross Creek township. Mr. Smith carried on a commercial business in Smith township, this county, for several years, and was a Republican. He and his wife both died in Smith township. Mrs. Griffith has two sisters living: Sarah Margaretta (wife of A. M. Russell) and Jennie O. (wife of Samuel Farrar), both residents of Mt. Pleasant township. Mr. and Mrs. Griffith began life on their present farm, which contains 140 acres of well- cultivated land, where they conduct a profitable dairy business, milking an average of eighteen cows per day. He built his residence in 1862, and remodeled it in 1892. In politics Mr. Griffith was formerly a Republican, but is now a zealous Prohibitionist, and he cast the first Prohibition party vote in his township; in 1888 he was nominated for the State Legislature on the Prohibition ticket. He and his wife are connected with the Mt. Pleasant United Presbyterian Church at Hickory, in which he is a ruling elder. They have two children: Maggie Venalla and Edwin Smith, both at home, the former of whom attended Washington Seminary, and graduated from Geneva College in 1888; the latter is at present attending Hickory Academy.

Text taken from page 1326 of: Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893). Transcribed February 1997 by Neil and Marilyn Morton of Oswego, IL as part of the Beers Project. Published February 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.

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